Pistons drop opening game to Rockets

AUBURN HILLS — A few hours after signing a five-year, $80 million dollar deal with the Rockets, James Harden proved he may be worth every penny.

Harden ruined opening night at The Palace for the Pistons by exploding for 37 points, 12 assists, six rebounds and four steals in the Rockets’ 105-96 win.

“I just wanted to get out there and play,” Harden said. “All the talking, all the craziness that’s happened in the last week, I just wanted to go out there and play basketball. I think I did a good job of helping my teammates and making them feel comfortable.”

Oklahoma City dealt Harden to the Rockets late Saturday so he had little time to get acclimated to his new team, but that didn’t stop him from stealing the show Wednesday.

“We would have thought he would have a tougher time as far as figuring out their offense,” Pistons forward Tayshaun Prince said of Harden. “But they stuck to only a couple plays the whole entire game, which kind of helped him out and kept him in a good rhythm.

“We know what type of player James Harden is. The more he has the ball in his hands the more dangerous he is. Everybody knows what he did in his Oklahoma City days. It’s going to make it even tougher with him being in Houston where he has the ball even more.”

The Pistons led 81-72 heading in the fourth quarter, but Houston outscored Detroit 33-15 in the fourth to pick up the victory.

“What happened in the fourth, we played at a really poor pace,” Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said. “A lot of half-hearted cuts, poor screening, not turning the corner in pick-and-rolls, not attacking, holding. We lost our rhythm. You go from holding them to a 17-point third quarter to the flood gates open and to give up a 33-point fourth quarter that’s not a recipe to win.”

“It was a circus out there the whole game,” Prince said. “They hit 3s and went up then we came back, just going back and forth. We had a good end of the third quarter. They started off the fourth real well. (Carlos) Delfino hit some big shots. From that point on we just couldn’t regain control. A couple bad turnovers here and there and our offense just went south.

“It’s something I talked about before in the preseason, a young team you have to play consistent basketball. If you don’t this can happen. We got a lot of work to do. Obviously we wish we could have got this game at home before we went on this road trip. It’s just going to make it even more tough for us.”

Rodney Stuckey finished with nine points and six assists, but was just 1 for 10 from the field.

“Early on he had some great looks, he was right at the rim,” Frank said. “He had one of those nights. We have to continue to look for different ways. He was more a by product of we became a little more disjointed with our rhythm. It’s a flow, rhythm game. We had too much herky, jerk in our game tonight.”

“Our bench gave us a great lift in the first half,” Frank said. “I think we just played in stretches. When we made the run you had starters on the floor in the third quarter. ... This is the first step in a very, very long journey. But it’s discouraging if we’re going to be a defense first team and you give up (33) points in the fourth quarter.”

Jeremy Lin had 12 points, eight assists and four steals in his Rockets’ debut.

Omer Asik added 12 points and nine rebounds, Delfino scored 15 points off the bench all on 3-pointers and Chandler Parsons had 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Houston (1-0).

Things don’t get any easy for the Pistons as they hit the road for a 10-day, six-game road trip.

“We are going to be in similar positions as we were today on the road trip,” Prince said. “Hopefully this is a learning experience for us. ... A young team, it’s going to be a tough task, but we just have to keep fighting through it. The most important thing is guys have to stay positive and we’ll try to figure this thing out as quickly as possible.”

Dave Pemberton covers the Pistons for The Oakland Press. Email him at dave.pemberton@oakpress.com and follow him on Twitter @drpemberton.